


Somebody to Lean On

by AssortedGeekery



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Galra Biology, Gen, Platonic Snuggles, Sickfic, Vomiting, Whump, people piles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-05
Updated: 2018-02-05
Packaged: 2019-03-13 21:41:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13579479
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AssortedGeekery/pseuds/AssortedGeekery
Summary: Sometimes Shiro needs a reminder that it's okay to take care of himself. And sometimes the reminder needs to be a little painful.It's okay. His team knows what to do.





	Somebody to Lean On

**Author's Note:**

> Again from the list of starters, these two:  
> “You can't be mad at me for throwing up. You're the one who gave me this bug.”  
> “Why didn't you say you weren't feeling well?”
> 
> Written again for cabbagespoon, who does the best Shiro having a no good very bad day, and for kotyonoksnz, also of tumblr, who makes beautiful art.

Hands down, most of the paladins tried to avoid missions that required breaking themselves into smaller groups, particularly on different planets. After multiple incidents where this had ended in disaster, panic, battle or just diplomatic kerfuffle, they all preferred being able to work as a unit whenever possible. 

But it  _ wasn’t _ always possible, and sometimes it wasn’t a good idea to have all five paladins, with or without their lions, in the same place at the same time. And so it was that Lance and Pidge were waiting on the return of the rest of their team, Lance playing a target practice sim outside the hangar where Shiro was due to return with Allura any minute, while Pidge camped out with the latest in a string of robotics projects outside Red’s hangar, waiting on Keith and Hunk, who were due in the next few hours. 

 

As planned, Black settled easily in the hangar and disgorged Allura and Shiro, who trudged across the floor wearing nearly identical expressions of weariness. 

“....didn’t go well?” Lance ventured, as they entered the hall. 

“No no, it went  _ wonderfully _ ,” Allura assured them, muffling a yawn behind her hand. “But their species needs very little actual  _ sleep  _ and we had to keep up with them for the entire thing...I don’t think I’ve had more than a single night’s sleep  _ total _ since we  _ left _ .”

Shiro nodded, jaw tightening briefly as he suppressed a yawn of his own. “Maybe that much,” he murmured. “ _ Maybe _ .”

“We’re all just waiting on everyone to get back, so maybe you can catch a nap?” Lance suggested. “Everything’s been quiet here. Coran’s cleaning the healing pods.” It went unsaid that Lance was never going to be on healing pod cleaning duty ever again. Even if someone had actually asked him to, he would have found a way to get out of it. It was bad enough having to  _ use _ them. 

“I think I will,” Allura agreed. “Shiro? You ought to do the same.”

“I’ll wait for the others to get back. Go over some more of Pidge’s data,” Shiro murmured, stretching slowly. “And then, maybe.”

“I’m gonna go wait with Pidge,” Lance announced, and made himself scarce before Allura, whose expression was shifting from tired to argumentative, called on him to help argue Shiro into an immediate nap. 

 

Shiro and Allura had compromised on the nap issue with Shiro doing his data-reviewing in the rec room on one of the couches, which was where he still was, kofi at his elbow, when the doors swished open and the rest of the team padded in. 

“Hey, how did it-  _ nnf _ !”

Hunk swung his armful of Keith over the back of the couch (and Shiro’s shoulder) to dump the Red paladin in Shiro’s lap. 

“Make him hold still until he falls asleep,” Hunk groaned, moving around the end of the couch to slump down and stretch. “ _ Please _ , oh my god.”

Shiro blinked and looked at his armful of teammate. Keith wriggled and was halfway out of Shiro’s lap before he froze, lips set in a grim line and entire upper body tense. His head bobbed sharply several times,and Hunk groaned. 

“Don’t  _ hold it in _ ! Shiro, would you just...pat him on the back real quick or something?”

“Uh...sure?” Shiro put his tablet aside and knocked the back of his hand between Keith’s shoulder blades. The effect was  _ immediate _ : Keith doubled over on himself, coughing hard, a painful, rough sound that was loud and harsh in the sudden silence of the rec room. 

“Wh-what was  _ that _ for?” he demanded weakly when the fit tapered off, glaring at Hunk for lack of the right angle to direct his ire at Shiro. 

“He’s had that cough for  _ two days _ ,” Hunk explained. “And he started sniffing this morning, and he wouldn’t take it easy even when we had time. So  _ I’m _ going to go make dinner and  _ you _ -” he glared at Keith, “- are going to sit here and rest with Shiro.”

“I don’t  _ need _ -” Keith began, but Shiro looped his Galra arm around Keith’s middle and hauled him back.

“You  _ do _ need,” he sighed, scooting sideways into the corner of the couch and taking Keith with him. “And I do too. Don’t argue with him.”

“You-”

“I’ve had less than ten hours of sleep in the last five days.” Shiro slumped comfortably into the corner of the couch. By virtue of the arm locked around his waist, Keith went with him, drawn down into a slouch. “I need it. Just take it easy while Hunk cooks.”

“But I don’t-”

Shiro’s hand snaked up the back of Keith’s head, fingers buried in his hair, and scratched gently. Keith shivered faintly, eyes closing a moment before his face screwed up in a scowl. 

“That’s  _ cheating _ .”

“Works, doesn’t it?”

“ _ Fine _ . But only because  _ you _ need it.”

“I’m in!” Lance announced, throwing himself down on Shiro’s other side. “Snuggles and a nap sound  _ awesome _ .”

“I’m gonna pass,” Pidge murmured. “I have a lot of new information to add to the database.”

“And I’ve got dinner to work on,” Hunk chuckled. “Thanks, Shiro.”

“Mmmmmhm,” Shiro hummed, already beginning to drowse. “Any time.”

 

Dinner was a stirfied melange of apparently random vegetables and some protein source no one could identify but everyone agreed tasted good. It was a quiet meal: Allura was too tired for much conversation, and Shiro was in the same boat, although apparently worse because he was caught nodding off into his bowl  _ twice _ . Keith coughed quietly throughout the meal, until Hunk sighed and brought him an enormous mug of tea. 

“Early night for me,” Allura yawned, as they all cleared up afterwards. “We can determine our next move tomorrow…”

“Training,” Shiro agreed. “We’re overdue. Except you, Keith.”

“ _ What _ ? I can train! I-”

Hunk helpfully thumped Keith on the back. Keith’s argument was lost in another coughing fit. 

“That’s why,” Shiro said dryly. “You can’t fight if you’ve coughed up a lung on the training room floor. Stay in bed, rest, get better.”

Keith scowled but didn’t argue. 

 

The following morning, Keith attempted to make it to training anyway, an attempt that was foiled by another coughing fit, this one considerably louder and wetter than the night before. Keith ended up being bodily hauled back to his room by Hunk, then by Shiro when he escaped and tried to come back in time for the invisible maze routine. 

“...maybe you should go...sit with him for a bit?” Lance suggested when Shiro plodded back. 

“Hm?”

“You still look like you’ve been run into the ground, man,” Lance pointed out. “Maybe you could do with the rest too, and it’ll keep Keith still. Because it’s  _ you _ , and because of the Galra thing.”

“The Blade said I’m no better at it than the rest of you,” Shiro defended. 

“He listens to you when he doesn’t want to listen to us, so that’s a  _ thing _ . Could you just...try? Before whatever he’s got gets  _ worse _ ?”

Shiro hesisted, then nodded, shoulders slumping somewhat. “Alright. I’ll...give it a shot.”

“Great!” Hunk said brightly, already beginning to herd Shiro towards the door. “I’ll come get you two for lunch.”

“ _ Lunch _ ? Hunk, I was just going to-”

“Until lunch. You have a  _ ton _ of sleep to make up.” He all but shoved Shiro out the door, relaxing when the door slid shut. 

“Bets on how long it takes Shiro get sick too?” Lance asked cautiously. 

“ _ Lance _ .”

“He’s right,” Pidge pointed out. “Exhausted like that, with Keith all over him while they nap? It’s inevitable.”

“I’m  _ not _ thinking about this,” Hunk declared. “And I’m not betting on it. Can you  _ imagine _ what kind of miserable Shiro could get with his sinuses all messed up like that, if he gets Keith’s cold? He was starting to sound...kinda... _ wet _ .”

Lance and Pidge cringed. 

“Hadn’t thought about that,” Lance admitted. “Does it go that deep?”

Pidge nodded. “It does. It’s healed up really well on the outside, but it’s kind of a wreck inside, still. Majorly deviated septum, plus other problems.”

They were all silent a moment, before Lance shook himself. “Okay. Well, it’s not like we can do anything about it, so…”

“So we keep training,” Pidge sighed. “Yeah.”

 

Keith and Shiro emerged for lunch, Keith bleary, congested and coughing into his fist, Shiro looking ruffled and entirely  _ exhausted _ . Both shuffled into their seats and ate mechanically as the rest of the team dug into their meals. 

After the dishes had been cleared away, Hunk cautiously approached Keith with the thermometer. Keith leaned away. 

“I don’t have a fever.”

“You’re sick with  _ something _ and I want to double check.” Hunk rolled the thermometer across his forehead and eyed the readout, then nodded.

“Are you going to check on  _ him _ too?” Keith asked mulishly, nodding at Shiro. 

“Should I?” Hunk asked, raising an eyebrow at Shiro. “Do I need to?”

“I’m  _ fine _ , Keith,” Shiro insisted. “Just tired.”

“....you  _ have _ gotten more sleep in the last twenty four hours than you had in the week before,” Pidge said slowly. “But you  _ look _ like you haven’t gotten any at all.”

“Sleep deprivation takes awhile to make up for,” he defended. 

“But we should check anyway. Colds can take awhile to incubate- Keith could have been contagious before you left and you could have been brewing it the whole time you were gone. Now that you’re somewhere safe to relax again, it could hit you hard,” Pidge reasoned. “Hunk, check him.”

Hunk nodded and leaned in over Shiro’s plate, sliding the head of the device over their leader’s forehead. It beeped once, almost thoughtfully, then again, and a number blinked onto the little screen. Hunk frowned at it, lips moving faintly as he converted to a more familiar measurement system. 

“...good call, Pidge,” he said finally, fixing Shiro with a look of disappointment.

“.....but….I’m  _ fine _ ,” Shiro insisted. 

“You're not finishing your lunch either,” Lance pointed out, nodding at Shiro’s plate. He was usually good about clearing it entirely, regardless of how successful Hunk’s experimenting had been. Today there was at least half of his portion remaining.

“Low fever, exhaustion and no appetite sound like the start of a bad cold to me,” Hunk declared. “Even if the rest of it hasn’t happened yet. Keith doesn’t have a fever, but, y’know, he  _ slept _ this last week, so…”

“....and I suppose you’re all going to chase me back to bed now.”

“Got it in one,” Pidge agreed. “We’re fine. You can take a day or two. We’ll do maintenance and things.”

He sighed heavily. “Probably a good idea. Keith? Are you going to argue?”

“.....guess not.”

Shiro nodded faintly, scrubbing at his face with his flesh hand. “ _ Alright _ . I’m...going to the rec room. I can’t stare at the bedroom walls any more today.”

“I’ll bring you tea later,” Hunk promised. “If you’re awake.”

“Mmmhmm…” He got up, cleared his plate and vanished out of the room, Keith trailing in his wake. The remaining paladins exchanged a glance. 

“Sooo…..” Lance said slowly. “Who wants to tell Allura?”

 

\---

Investigation later that afternoon found Shiro crammed sideways on a couch in the rec room, snoring into the cushions. His arm was thrown over Keith, sprawled beside him on the rest of the available space with his face buried in Shiro’s shirt.

“....I think he’s  _ drooling _ ,” Pidge remarked, peeking at Keith. “ _ Yup _ . Definitely drooling, from sleeping with his mouth wide open like that.”

“He’s so congested I’m not surprised,” Hunk muttered. “ _ Listen _ to that.”

“I can’t hear  _ anything _ over Shiro snoring,” Lance pointed out. “It’s not usually this loud, though…”

“I think he’s getting stuffed up too,” Pidge sighed. “C’mon...we should let them sleep.”

“....what if we just….stay here and sleep too?” Lance ventured, eyeing them. “It’s good for them, isn’t it? If we all get in on it?”

Pidge hesitated. Hunk shrugged. “If we can do it without waking them up…”

“Challenge  _ accepted _ . C’mon, don’t tell me that doesn’t sound like a  _ great _ idea.”

“Well  _ I’m _ in,” Allura murmured, padding around the other end of the couch. The three paladins jumped, having not heard her come in, and watched as she perched on the other end of the couch, pulled her shoes off, and stretched out with a sigh.

Lance took this as permission. He kicked off his shoes, yanked his shirt off, and clambered onto the pile. 

“...skin contact is  _ good _ , remember?” he pointed out, when Hunk and Pidge gave him an odd look. “And it’s gonna get hot with all of us.”

Hunk shrugged and shouldered out of his vest, quickly making a pile of it with his belt, boots and shirt. He had to pick Lance up and bodily move him to make room between Allura and Shiro, but managed well enough, draping Lance across himself and Allura like some kind of fur stole. Pidge followed him, carefully ootching in on Shiro’s other side to prop him up and get the cushions out of his face a little. This was the only time Keith  _ or _ Shiro made any indication that they were going to wake at all, Shiro shifting with a sleepy snuffle, but as the pileup froze entirely, Shiro sighed, turned to pillow his cheek on Pidge’s leg, and went still again. Everyone sighed in relief.

And then they all slept.

\----

Coran had to wake the whole pile late in the afternoon, to an assortment of duties that actually had to be accomplished. Shiro actually woke then, muttering, and pulled a protesting Keith into his arms, retreating somewhere quieter to apparently continue the nap. It had the rest of the team exchanging nervous looks with one another.

After drone maintenance, kitchen cleaning and a brief interlude in which Allura insisted on inventorying one of the smallest storage areas, they congregated for a late, informal dinner in the kitchen, picking at leftovers rather than putting any effort into making something new. 

Keith appeared halfway through, yawning and looking like he could still do with a solid night’s sleep. 

“Hungry?” Hunk asked, pleased. “It’s just leftovers tonight, we got busy.”

“Coran  _ made _ us busy,” Lance muttered. 

Keith nodded, going to rummage in the chiller until he found something he wanted. 

“...are you feeling any better?” Allura ventured, eyeing him as he cautiously reheated his meal. Even she and Coran occasionally had incidents with the temperamental device they used for heating up individual portions of whatever came to hand, and Keith in particular didn’t have a good track record with it.

“Not really,” Keith murmured. By some miracle, his dinner didn’t explode and he was able to move it to the table without incident. He slid onto the seat with a hoarse sigh and leaned over his bowl. “About the same….Shiro’s colds  _ suck _ .”

There was dead silence around the table for a moment. 

“Did you say  _ Shiro’s colds _ ?” Pidge demanded. 

Keith flushed, eyes widening in a brief expression of shock before he looked down again. 

“You  _ did _ ! Was he sick before? How did we all  _ miss it _ ?”

“...we were all  _ busy _ ,” Keith mumbled, not looking back up. “It didn’t seem so bad when he had it…”

“...exactly  _ how _ ‘not so bad’ was it?” Hunk asked carefully. “Symptoms?”

“Uh...everything I have, I guess? But...not so much?”

“And he’s feverish  _ now _ ,” Pidge said slowly, staring into space. “He was getting congested this afternoon…..”

“Changed just enough in Keith for him to get sick again?” Hunk asked. 

“Seems likely, yes.” Pidge groaned, slouching in their seat and massaging their temples. “You  _ two _ ...I swear, it’s like the perfect storm.”

“I didn’t  _ plan it _ ,” Keith muttered. “He had it first.”

“And you two were in that cargo shuttle for  _ hours _ ,” Hunk murmured thoughtfully, thinking back to the mission Keith and Shiro had been on shortly before the last ones. “It would’ve been a miracle if you  _ hadn’t _ caught it from him.”

“But he  _ hid it _ !” Lance complained. “What if it had been  _ serious _ ?”

 

Keith escaped the room with his dinner while the team groused about the whole situation. 

\----

Morning came late, with paladins and princess trailing slowly into the kitchen to find Coran observing and Hunk making something like pancakes. Shiro sat at the table watching them, apparently trying to find motivation in the promise of pancakes and the bottom of a mug of kofi so comically large it would have been funny under other circumstances. In the current situation, however, they were all aware of how pale he looked behind the mug, and how he appeared desperately tired in spite of all the sleep he’d been getting in the last day and a half.

He ducked his head as the others wandered in, not meeting anyone’s eyes. 

“His fever’s higher,” Hunk announced as the door closed behind Lance. “Since you’re all staring at him like he’ll do a trick if you wait long enough.”

“How much higher?” Pidge asked, padding over to touch the back of their hand to Shiro’s forehead. They cringed. “ _ Ah _ .”

“High enough.”

“It’s fine,” Shiro grumbled. 

“You don’t get fevers like that with colds,” Pidge objected, taking a mug of kofi from Hunk before sitting down. “You might have something else.”

“I don’t.”

“I really think you do. What are your symptoms?”

Shiro shrugged, still talking into his mug. “Headache. Fatigue. Sore throat. Congestion.” He wrinkled his nose. “Bit of a tickle? It’s a cold, Pidge.” 

Pidge frowned, reaching around Shiro’s arm to prod under his jaw. He recoiled with a startled sound, and Pidge gave him a  _ look _ that could have taken paint off a Galra cruiser. “Your lymph nodes are swollen,” they declared. “And more than that, they’re  _ really _ swollen. Keith’s aren’t that bad.”

“Didn’t see you check his,” Shiro muttered. 

“Got me in the hall,” Keith said hoarsely. 

“You  _ had _ a cold already,” Hunk pointed out, putting a platter of not-pancakes on the table. “Keith slipped up and told us last night. When you  _ didn’t _ eat dinner, by the way, so you had better eat now.”

Shiro eyed the plate and, under the watching stares of the rest of the team, transferred two not-pancakes to his own plate. Wordlessly, Keith shoved a bottle of some sort of syrup at him and the watching routine was repeated while Shiro drizzled syrup on his breakfast. He got a couple of bites in, visibly working at not wincing when he swallowed, before giving up and putting his spork down. 

“If I admit to being sick will you all  _ stop staring at me _ ?”

The answering chorus of ‘yes’ made him blink at them. 

“Well that’s...good. Fine. It’ll work.” He put his head down and went back to his breakfast, ears bright pink.

Breakfast went on around him, not-pancakes and syrup and a bowl of chopped fruit being passed over mugs of kofi and tea. He ate a little more not-pancake, allowed Hunk to put some fruit on his plate, picked at that a bit, tried and failed to drink kofi without coughing, and finally made a frustrated noise. 

“I’m  _ done _ ,” he informed the host of observers, and managed to clear his plate, clean it, and exit the room without losing the air of a mortally insulted cat. If he’d had a tail, it would have been lashing. 

As soon as the doors closed, the paladins looked at each other. 

“Was he... _ listing _ to the left?” Lance asked carefully. 

“He was,” Pidge agreed. “Either he’s so tired he’s trying to compensate for the weight of his arm, or he’s having trouble with his balance.”

“Probably his balance,” Hunk murmured. “With a fever like that, and eating as little as he has been?”

“When the arm’s bothering he crosses his arms and sort of cradles it,” Keith offered hoarsely. “To support it. Leaning sideways isn’t...typical.”

“You know….my money is on a sinus infection,” Hunk said thoughtfully, swiping a piece of fruit through a leftover puddle of syrup. “If he had that cold before, and his sinuses are a wreck to begin with...he’s got a pretty high fever, he’s a little off balance, he admits to being congested….”

“I’ll go poke him!” Lance announced, and galloped out of the room before anyone could stop him.

 

He was back sooner than anyone expected, cradling his arm. 

“So, the good news is that his reflexes are still, like,  _ epic _ ,” he announced to the room of dishwashing paladins. “The bad news is that his face is so tender he shoved me into the door frame when I touched him.”

“....you actually  _ meant _ poke him?” Pidge asked, appalled. “ _ Lance _ , what were you thinking?”

“That it wasn’t going to be that bad?”

“Well apparently it  _ is _ .” Pidge sighed and rubbed their face with both hands. “Okay. Sinus infections need antibiotics...we’ve got to have something around.”

The hunt for antibiotics was very much slowed down when Coran explained that while yes, the Alteans used such a thing, they were targeted rather than the broad-spectrum sort still prescribed in emergencies on Earth. It would take time, and a sample, to come up with something suitable for Shiro. 

_ Getting _ the sample was an exercise in patience and team building. It took  _ three _ of them to keep Shiro still even  _ after _ he had agreed to it; Hunk held him to a chair from behind, Keith had the Galra arm and Lance had the other. Pidge was in charge of taking the sample, because Coran couldn’t resist a litany of theoretically calming and placating murmurs when he had tried, and it wasn’t worth it to have Shiro wound so tight. Previous attempts had ended in two sneezing fits, a worryingly violent gag, and one case where Shiro had almost ended up with a sample swab permanently embedded in his sinuses from twitching too suddenly. 

“This would be  _ easier _ if you would  _ hold still _ ,” Pidge informed Shiro, clinging resolutely to his hips with their knees while they attempted- again- to get a swab from either his throat or a nostril. Either would do, but it was much easier said than done. 

“I can’t  _ help it _ , Pidge,” Shiro pointed out. “You wouldn’t like having that thing stuck up  _ your _ nose either.”

“Well we tried the throat and you nearly puked on everyone, so the nasal route seemed like a better idea. Unless you want to try the throat again?”

Shiro swallowed uneasily, eyeing the swab Pidge was waving around. “.....yeah, let’s try that.”

“Okay, then. Open up.”

Shiro obeyed, letting Pidge lean into him with the swab again. Hunk, Lance and Keith tightened their hold immediately, waiting in case Shiro jerked again. 

Pidge moved as quickly as they safely could, giving a quick and careful swipe with the swab more or less in the vicinity of Shiro’s tonsils, and all but threw themselves backwards as he doubled over, retching. Hunk, Lance and Keith all dived out of the way, leaving room for Coran to throw himself into the fray armed with an empty storage cube. Allura pounced on Pidge, getting the swab into a sterile tube for testing before it could come into contact with anything else. 

“Did we get it?” Pidge asked breathlessly. “Please tell me we got it.”

“I think we got it,” Allura agreed, inspecting the sealed tube. Behind them, Shiro’s harsh retching turned into a wet cough, then a belching heave. The remaining team gave a collective groan, which Pidge echoed. 

When Pidge turned around, Shiro had the storage cube in his lap and was panting hoarsely over it, allowing Coran to mop at his face with a cloth.

“Well now, Number One….a great deal of this appears to be mucus!”

“Drainage,” Hunk said faintly, very carefully not looking at Shiro and Coran. “Has to be.”

“Explains the sore throat and everything,” Pidge agreed. “And he wouldn’t necessarily have been coughing, to start. I mean, he is  _ now _ , but-”

“Can you  _ not _ ?” Shiro asked. “You’ve made your point.” He accepted a water pouch from Allura, rinsed, spat, and allowed Coran to take the cube. 

“As far as I’m concerned, this just means you need to take it easy until further notice,” Lance decided. “I mean...it’s a sinus infection, not, like...you know. Before. We can take shifts!”

“I will be  _ fine _ without one of you  _ sitting on me _ all day,” Shiro growled, getting up. He staggered briefly, shrugged off two attempts to brace or support him, and left the room.

\----

Shiro stayed holed up somewhere out of sight for the rest of the morning. Allura drilled Hunk, Lance and Pidge in the gym, and allowed Keith to participate in the guidance half of the maze drill after he stubbornly braced his arms and legs in the doorway and did his level best to resist removal. Once a truce was called, he sat in a corner, coughing ominously and working on equipment maintenance while the others suffered under Allura’s command.

Shiro did not surface for lunch. The Paladins, Keith included, retreated to the main hangar bay for regular lion maintenance and care. Hunk packed as much tea as he could reliably keep warm and draped a blanket around Keith’s shoulders. 

“You may not really have a fever,” he explained, when Keith blinked up at him, “but you probably  _ feel _ cold anyway and it’ll help. Not like the hangar is the warmest place in the castle.”

“...thanks.”

Hunk smiled at that. “It’s not so bad when we aren’t henning you to death, huh?”

“...guess not.”

“Why didn’t you say you weren’t feeling well, while we were out? It wouldn’t have  _ changed _ anything, really.”

“We had work to do. It didn’t matter.”

Hunk gave Keith a stern look. “It matters. Maybe this time it was just a cough and you being a little tired, and it didn’t affect the mission any. But what if it was something worse? If you spiked a fever, or had a headache bad enough that you couldn't pilot effectively? It could be really bad for you, and for the rest of us. Being upfront about it lets me- or whoever- make contingency plans.”

Keith looked away, flushed. “...I guess those are good points.”

“We aren’t bothering you two because we’re upset or anything, we’re bothering because you’re important and we want to make sure you’re  _ okay _ .”

“Yeah...I know. But it’s...hard.” Keith shrugged. “There’s just  _ us _ and we have so much to do, and…”

“We can do a lot of useful things without being out in the lions fighting bad guys. C’mon, I think Allura wants us to try the bonding exercise without the focus.”

“Can we do that without Shiro?”

“She said we should be able to…”

 

They needn’t have worried. As Allura called them all to stop working and begin the exercise, Shiro slunk out of the Black Lion and resolutely plunked himself down before the massive robot, giving the team a look that would have been more appropriate coming from a petulant preteen than their usually mature and well-behaved leader. Arms crossed, he settled in for the exercise, and Allura decided it wasn’t worth the argument to chase him off. A little bonding wouldn’t be strenuous, after all.

And it wasn’t, right up until Allura told them to bond together, like they did when they were forming Voltron. 

Shiro’s presence, usually calm and hovering behind everything else in a protective sort of fashion, crashed down on the rest of his teammates in a tidal wave of awful. Everyone in the bond got a second-hand experience of the throbbing headache, aching sinuses, queasy stomach, exhaustion and dizziness. Keith’s considerably less-powerful misery washed in behind it, filling any remaining available space with the urge to cough and a panicky  _ need _ for more air.

It was Lance who broke the bond first, physically jerking himself backwards in the same breath and rolling onto his hands and knees, coughing and gasping for a breath around a tightness that wasn’t in  _ his _ chest at all. Hunk went next, dashing for a trash can as Pidge crumpled against the Green Lion’s paw, coughing to clear someone else’s chest and clutching at their throat from pain that wasn’t theirs. Even Keith reeled, hugging his stomach as he coughed. 

Shiro sat very still, eyes wide, watching the chaos in apparent astonishment until Allura stormed up to him, so angry she was getting taller as she approached. Then he was getting to his feet, swaying dangerously as he hurried over to Keith. 

Just in time, as it so happened, for Keith to lean forward and heave up his lunch on Shiro’s feet. Coughing hard, he braced himself against Shiro’s shins and heaved again before collapsing onto his back and closing his eyes, trying to catch his breath. 

“ _ Keith _ -” Shiro began, but Keith waved a weak hand at him. 

“You can’t get mad at me for throwing up, you  _ gave me _ this thing.”

“Maybe, but I-”

“And Hunk too.”

“Keith-”

“You should apologise to him.” Keith opened one eye. “Maybe take your boots off first, so you don’t track that all over the hangar.”

Shiro opened his mouth to try and get a word in, but that was when Allura caught up with him. She was in the vicinity of eight feet tall by that point, eyes hard and jaw set, her hands balled up into tight fists. Shiro actually took a nervous step back as she approached.

“ _ What _ were you  _ thinking _ ?” Allura demanded, voice tight with anger. “The bonding exercise  _ opens you up  _ to the rest of the team! What if you had done that in battle? You would have put the entire team in jeopardy!”

“I wouldn’t h-”

“Yes you would have!  _ Why _ are you being so  _ stubborn _ about this?” she demanded, fists propped on her hips. “You were perfectly willing to accept rest and care when you had Radmacher’s Disease, how is this any different?”

“It’s...that’s not the same, Allura.”

“ _ How _ is it not the same? You’re ill, you need to rest, this team needs you functional and sabotaging yourself and others in the name of stubbornness is a good way to get someone  _ killed _ !”

Shiro stiffened, an expression of hurt flirting across his features. 

“Allura, you...you know that’s not what I-”

“You had  _ several _ chances to negotiate, Shiro,” she said coldly. “Starting when you became ill in the first place,  _ before _ you and I went on our mission.  _ Now _ you are not in a position to argue.  _ Now _ you are going to do as you’re told.”

His expression closed off immediately, jaw working, and he crossed his arms. 

“Your behavior is ridiculous and  _ childish _ . I expect better than that from this entire team, but  _ especially _ from you. You are older than the others and serve as a role model, Shiro. What you’re doing now is training them to ignore the messages their bodies send.”

Shiro shuddered, then jerked forward, sending Allura skipping backwards in case he was about to vomit. Instead, Shiro made a strangled spitting sort of noise with every jerk forward, shoulders tense and high around his ears. After a moment he uncrossed his arms and covered his face with both hands, which was when Pidge figured out what he was doing. 

“It’s going to hurt  _ more _ if you hold it in,” they warned. 

“P-pidge, I-  _ KKTCH! _ ”

“What’s he doing?” Lance asked breathlessly, joining Pidge. 

“I’m  _ kktch _ n-not-”

“He’s stifling his sneezes,” Pidge said blandly. “And it hurts. A  _ lot _ .”

“Does n-not,” Shiro managed, straightening. He was red in the face and his eyes were streaming. 

“Then quit stifling, if it doesn’t hurt.”

Hunk sidled over, with a very pale Keith leaning heavily against him. Both of them fixed Shiro with the same expectant look. He eyed them all, bridge of his nose wrinkling with building irritation. 

“You all... _ hih... _ h-have  _ iihhihh snff _ things to b-be  _ hih’IH _ doing,” he tried, breath hitching. 

“Yeah, and we’re doing the most important one,” Hunk informed him. “Making sure you get what you need.”

“I _ ihhh _ d-don’t need  _ snffsnff _ to be  _ m-monitored _ .” 

“Oh yeah?” Lance leaned in and flicked the tip of Shiro’s nose. 

The effect was immediate. Shiro nearly took himself out with the Galra arm by bringing it up to cover his nose and mouth too fast and without enough control to keep it from actual impact, both hands tented together in an effort to shield and muffle the veritable storm of sneezes that resulted from Lance’s brief invasion into Shiro’s personal space. Shiro staggered, and Pidge ran to get him a box to sit on before he collapsed entirely. All four of them still remembered vividly how dizzy and weak he was feeling, and didn’t trust that he could keep his feet. 

“ _ Jesus _ !” Lance back, eyes wide. “That’s... _ christ _ , Shiro!”

“Uh, guys? Tissue is going to be a genuine  _ need _ in a minute,” Hunk pointed out, listening as the frantic sneezing took on a decidedly wetter sound. “Or...uh... _ now _ .”

“Got it!” Lance dashed for the communal tool-center on wheels they had rolled into the main hangar earlier, rummaging for something that would serve. Paper products were all but unheard of on the castle, and questionable at best on other planets, but fabrics? Much more common. He came up with a tub of the Altean version of shop rags, pulled out a handful, and ran them back to Shiro, whose sneezing was slowing down. He was, however, making thick, wet sounds of distress behind his cupped hands, so Lance shoved the handful of rags at him without delay.

Shiro took them, blew, sneezed three times in quick succession, blew again, and made a little sound of dismay. Lance brought him more rags and the routine was repeated, apparently with more success this time. When he looked up, the only real color to his face, other than his scar, was the tender pinkness of his nose and a flag of feverish red across his cheekbones. 

“I-”

“If you’re about to say  _ anything _ other than ‘I’m going to go lie down’, you can stop,” Hunk said quietly. “You need to rest. You need rest and medicine and a bunch of other things, but rest  _ first _ .”

“ _ Hunk _ , I can’t j-”

“And Keith can come with you for awhile, because he’s been good about not pushing but he needs to take a break,  _ especially _ after the blowback from your bonding with the rest of us.”

Shiro bit his lip, looking ashamed. 

“I didn’t think it would….it’s never…”

“To be honest I don’t think it occured to any of us,” Hunk pointed out, patting his shoulder. “None of us has gone into it feeling bad enough for it to hit the others like that, and we all  _ expect _ it if something happens  _ while _ we’re all bonded. Now we know, and we won’t do it again unless we have to. But you owe it to the whole team to take care of yourself. And you owe it to  _ you _ , but I don’t think that matters to you as much.” He gave Shiro a look. “You and Keith both do that, you know. You don’t take good care of yourselves unless we make you.”

“That’s not  _ true _ , I-”

“I said  _ good _ care. You eat and you try to sleep and you work out and watch our backs and all of that. But you don’t do anything for yourself  _ just _ because it’s for you. You don’t do anything selfish unless it’s sacrificing your own health and safety for the rest of us, and  _ that _ is so wrong I don’t even know where to  _ start. _ ”

“ _ Hunk _ , I-”

“ _ No _ . You’re going to be  _ selfish _ for awhile. You’re going to be lazy and indulgent and you’re going to try to sleep late and you’re going to nap and eat when you’re hungry even if it isn’t meal time or  _ so help me _ .”

Shiro hesitated, sneezed into his elbow, and nodded morosely. “Fine.”

“But first you’re going to let me put bruise balm on your cheek because  _ ow _ , you’re already bruising.”

Shiro nodded faintly. “Hit myself pretty hard, yeah.”

“Go somewhere comfortable and I’ll meet you there. I think we’re all done here in the hangar anyway. Hey, Keith, you should go with him. Keep each other from doing something dumb, like going over Pidge’s data.”

They  _ both _ looked briefly guilty, which only made Hunk laugh. 

“Rec room?” Keith suggested, looking sideways at Hunk in case he disapproved.

“I...yeah. That’s fine.”

“I’m going to go put on something more comfortable. You should….uh…” He looked down at Shiro’s feet. “...maybe take those off in here?”

Shiro flushed bright pink a moment, and nodded. “Meet you in the rec room?”

“Mmhm.”

\------

Shiro sacked out almost as soon as he got on the couch, sprawled across Keith’s legs like an overgrown housecat and snoring like a chainsaw. Looking sleepy but not quite tired enough to nap, Keith rubbed Shiro’s back and stared off into the middle distance until Pidge put on a documentary for him. Something about having it on put Keith out too, slumped against Shiro’s bulk and making wheezy noises with his mouth wide open.

In the kitchen, Hunk was cooking furiously, making soup for Shiro and Keith, and something more filling for everyone else, and possibly muttering nonstop under his breath. 

Allura padded in and perched on the table, a little smaller than normal and looking sheepish. 

“Before you ask, no, I don’t think you did the wrong thing when you lectured Shiro,” Hunk said, not looking up from the pot he was stirring. “He needs to hear it. I think sometimes even you expect him to be our leader, and yours.”

Allura blushed. “I...suppose I do, in a way.”

“So yeah, he needed to hear it and he needed to hear it from you. Cookie?” He offered her one with a smile. “Now all we have to do is get Shiro and Keith back on their feet.”


End file.
